A student has been suspended from Pāpāmoa College for having a beard, despite it 'representing his family's culture”.

The college's principal Iva Ropati, who started in October 2022, introduced new rules at the start of the year including a facial hair ban, with cultural exemptions applying.

A student and his father have contacted The Weekend Sun on the basis of anonymity after the son was suspended.

'I've had facial hair for the last three or four years I've been at this school,” says the student. 'It represents my family's culture. All the men in my family have facial hair, and it reminds me of them and our strength.”

With the new rule, the student claims his school is giving him two options 'either shave or leave school” and he was recently suspended for a week-and-a-half due to his beard.

His father says: 'I had to pretty much beg them to accept him back but they put conditions on”.

The student says: 'I'm not actually allowed in class. I have to sit in an office and do all my work in that office. I'm not allowed out at breaks or lunchtime”.

The Sun asked Pāpāmoa College's principal Iva why the facial hair rule was created. 'At the end of last year our board went out to our parent community and asked them some key questions about what they'd like to see changed; and overwhelmingly the parent community said that we needed to lift standards and raise achievement,” says Iva.

Asked whether the parent community specifically asked to ban facial hair as part of lifting school standards, Iva stated: 'They didn't specifically state facial hair – no, but any part of lifting standards around uniform, how they present themselves, how they feel and look – a big part of that is increasing the level of pride and that did come through from parents”.

The parent says they've had a couple of meetings with the school about their son's facial hair. 'I've complained to the board explaining my reasoning but the school replies: ‘I don't know your culture. We've never heard about that'...‘we need a formal letter from a cultural leader'.”

Iva says: 'We have an application process for any students who feel as though they have some grounds for exemption, and so they go through that process of making an application and we'll look at each case on an individual.”

The parent says they're getting an official letter from a representative from their country, yet they feel they or others shouldn't have to go to these lengths. 'It's not fair to the others to deserves this …like all the other schools like Te Puke College, or Mount Maunganui College are doing the opposite, and scrapped that rule from the beginning because they say these rules are segregating the students.

'It's not just about facial hair. It's what he believes, it's deeper and his roots, and I don't think he needs to explain himself.”

Iva says the school's issue with facial hair is 'it reflects poorly on an individual and therefore it reflects poorly on the school as a whole”.

'If you present yourself really well, you dress well, you look good, chances are – you're going to feel good…the opposite is if you've got your trousers somewhere near your ankles, you've got facial hair that's unkempt and untidy, and hair that's not a natural colour, again you don't need too many brains to work out that place must have low standards.”

The parent says: 'I feel like others should be able to show themselves as they want to but with makeup you put on extra, hair colour you put on extra, but a beard comes naturally. Why should that not be allowed?”

The student claims he's been targeted by the college's deputy principal. 'I kind of feel like I was targeted – like the only time he'd come to me is when he saw me. None of the other students with facial hair got talked to. I asked some of my mates with facial hair if they had to bring in a councillor and they didn't have to bring anything in.”

In response, Iva says: 'The reality is that every student is treated equally”.

'The expectation applies to everyone…we can't get to everyone at the same time but I can tell you with some certainty that if there is a young person there that is not following the rules then we will get to them at some point in time.

'The options are – they apply for exemption like everyone else and then we assess that or they look for another school that may have different standards.”

The students says they were looking forward to going to the school ball later this year and already has the NCEA credits he requires. 'So if do have to switch schools there will be no point…I go to school because I like studying and I like learning stuff so I'll just have to go into course instead of finishing school this year. I was really looking forward to finishing.”

So would the school consider returning to the old rules permitting facial hair? Iva says: 'Unless there is a groundswell of parents who have changed their view over the last six months then the short answer is absolutely not”.